Characteristics for vatas

You are most likely thin and have a delicate body type. You are prone to dryness, flakiness, dark sports, and premature fine lines and wrinkles (Hello me! Whenever it gets just a bit colder in, my skin are very prone to become dry).

Your skin type is normal to dry.

There are plenty of things you can do to ‘balance’ an imbalance. Here are some tips I’ve found, which can help your skin if you are predominantly vata.

TIPS FOR VATAS

Create routines

Try to create some routines and stick to them. Vatas are known for their creativity and tons of ideas, but they have a hard time sticking to things, even though they would benefit highly from this. Try to create some routines for yourself to get more grounded.

Get regular sleep

In connection with routines, getting a regular sleep is also so important. Try to go to bed at the same time each night, and you can also try to create a before-bed-time routine, something that relaxes you, calms you down and prepares you for sleep. That could be making a little evening skincare routine, with candles, slow music, followed by reading a book in bed with low lights.

Gentle movement

Don’t over-exercise, but strive for more grounding activities. This could be yoga, walking, pilates, swimming, dancing, or shorter hikes.

Eat healthy fats

Healthy fats are so good for you and your skin, since these really moisturise your skin from the inside and out, and really keeps the skin hydrated. Healthy fats includes nuts, seeds and avocados.

Use gentle and moisturising skincare products

Use very gentle cleansers, so you don’t over-dry your skin. If you are a vata, you might know that feeling of very sensitive and irritated skin after having cleansed your face with a very ‘harsh’ cleanser – I do. For many years, when I was younger, I believed all those magazines telling me to buy this and that product to get rid of pimples etc., and all of the products were very harsh, so my skin for sure didn’t like that. After cleansing your face, you should moisturise it immediately after, to keep your skin hydrated. Look for warming and very moisturising products to use on your skin fx sesame, olive oil, shea butter and honey.

Cooked vegetables

Vatas need more warm, cooked vegetables. They do not do as well with raw vegetables, since this can help contribute to dryness and slow down digestion. Vatas usually already have slow digestion, so eating raw vegetables does not work that well for them. Try lightly cooking or steaming your veggies instead. Eating warm veggies is very grounding for vatas, which is exactly what they need. Warm veggies will also help warm them up from the inside and out.

In ayurveda there is 3 different doshas, or constellation types. We all have each of these doshas in us, but we tend to have one or two more dominant doshas. Based on these doshas you can find out what brings you out of balance, and what brings you into balance and what makes you the best version of yourself. If you have no idea what ayurveda is, then I have written a little blogpost about ayurveda in general here, but today I want to write a bit about the 3 different doshas.

The 3 different doshas are vata, kapha and pitta. Below you will find some descriptions about the characteristics for each type and what brings them out of balance and what brings them into balance. You can take ayurveda tests several places online or in books, or you might even be able to see which one is your primary one simply based on the descriptions below.

Picture source: Raw Ayurveda

Vata – space and air

Characteristics: typical slim, small persons. Easy to see bones. Tendency to dry skin. Often have cold hands and feet, speaks fast and sleeps very lightly.

Vata in imbalance: easily gets out of balance during the winter and the cold months, and by stress, hard exercising or too much activity, travelling and instability. Easily gets constipated, shakes easily, easily looses appetite, sleepless, gets anxious, have a hard time making decisions and standing by them, feeling divided, dry skin, cannot stay still, worries a lot, anxious, indecisive, unfocused, do things fast, forgets to eat, gets overwhelmed by too much at once.

Kapha – Water and Earth

Characteristics: Often big and strong. Skin is clear and eyes are moisture and beautiful. Hair is typically thick, shiny and waved. Strong appetite, good immune system, moves slowly and calmly, loves to sleep for a long time and deep.

Kapha in balance: calm, stable, romantic, grounding, a good support for many people, easy to be in company with, satisfied, generous, loyal, faithful, good health, likes cakes, full of love and compassion, happy for routines, empathic, good memory, loves to eat, sit, relax, sleep, easily gains weight, healthy body, strong teeth, thick hair,

Kapha in imbalance: very lazy, depressive, greedy, turns inward, lung issues, slow, sleeps more than hours per night, feels heavy in body and mind, does not take initiatives, passive, lies on the couch, eats comfort foods, easily gains weight, jealous.

Pitta – Fire and Water

Characteristics: medium building, is often strong and well proportioned. Have a sensitive skin, a good glow, glittering eyes with a sharp look. Hair is soft and thin. A pitta is warm and soft to touch, they speak sharp and precise.

Once you know which dosha is your primary, you can also learn how to bring it into balance by learning about what foods are good for you, what kind of exercises are good for you, which routines etc.

I can tell you that I’m without a doubt a primary vata, I’m slim, have a tendency to get easily cold, gets easily stressed out if I have too many things going on, love warm food and drinks and I have tons of ideas, but sometimes have a hard time sticking to routines – a typical vata. Some of the things I’ve learned through learning about ayurveda is what I can do to get more into balance. I can eat warm, grounding food, remember to relax and slow down and try to stick to some routines.

Ayurveda is a very ancient philosophy which goes hands in hand with yoga and really looks at how you can prevent diseases, illnesses etc. rather than fighting them once they are there.

I’m interested to hear – what is your dosha type? Can you identify yourself based on these descriptions? Or have you taken a test?

If you want to learn more about ayurveda and doshas, then I can recommend these sources, which is also where I’ve found information for this post from

What is ayurveda? That was actually something I asked myself about half a year ago. I remember the first time I met Ida, and she mentioned ayurveda and I thought “ayur-what?”. I had never heard that expression before, but I am so grateful that I now know about it, because I’m truly fascinated by it.

What is ayurveda?Ayurveda is a traditional indian medicin science, and the philosophy is not just focused upon treatment like it’s done in western medicin, but also on prevention. You both look at what you eat, how you move your body, how you can create balance in your mind and much more in order to get a body in balance and live a healthy life. Everything I love! Because I truly am a “sucker” for everything that has to do with health and wellness.

The 3 dosha’sAyurveda is the overall philosophy. But within ayurveda there are 3 dosha’s. These are called data, pitta and kappa. All humans contain all 3 dosha’s, but typically you’ll have one or to which are more dominating. You can take an ayurveda test and find which is your temporary dosha. I’ve found out that I’m primarily a vata.

When you know your dosha, you can read about different tips and tricks which you can use to keep yourself in balance and thereby not get out of balance. Because when you get out of balance, that is when you start to get problems, like becoming sick, get an irritated stomach, get stressed and much more – all those things that you want to avoid.

I’m very fascinated by this philosophy, and that is especially what I’m currently reading and watching documentaries about. I’m so lucky that my boyfriend and I are going to Thailand in October, and the hotel that we’re going to stay at actually has focus on ayurveda – which I’m just even more excited about now!

If you want to learn more about ayurveda, then I can recommend you to read Karen Pallisgaard’s book “begynder yogabogen” (only in Danish), where you can take an ayurveda test and learn about the different dosha types. Besides that I also have the book “Perfect Health” by Deepak Chopra waiting for me, which also has focus on ayurveda. I can also recommend subscribing to gaia.com, where you can watch a lot of small videos about ayurveda.

Do you already know about ayurveda? And if you do, which is your primary dosha?